What is it that you dream of most?
A nationwide survey by Spiegel, Incorporated, found that one out of ten Americans fantasizes about the “house of their dreams” every single day. Their dream house has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two fireplaces, seven closets, three televisions, four telephones, and is a short stroll from the beach. Other amenities include a media/entertainment center, and an exercise facility, a library, a spa and whirlpool, and home office, and an indoor/outdoor pool.
Doesn’t everyone have a wish list? What do you want most? And if God came to you ready to give you anything, what would you ask for? Really, what would you say?
On some people’s wish list is a multi-million dollar resort home. Or maybe something a little less expensive, just a nice new Mercedes S600 Sedan or a Lexus GS with all the bells and whistles. Or maybe something a little more earthly in nature. Perhaps the mysterious disappearance of certain people they don’t like. What would you ask for? Solomon had that privilege. But let’s step back before that.
I can only imagine that when Solomon began his reign, the huge responsibilities of leadership must have felt absolutely overwhelming to him. As a young man. How would he even begin? What would he do? How would he set the tone for his rule? Second Chronicles 1:2 tells us that Solomon gathered all of his army commanders and judges and leaders across the nation of Israel, maybe even some head of households. And he gathered them to a seriously old-fashioned General Conference camp-meeting at the tabernacle.
And there Solomon sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings at the altar, because he felt the need for God’s guidance in this early part of his reign. A thousand sacrifices. How long would they take? A thousand sacrifices were symbolic of his very real and genuine desire for God to help him and bless him. His prayers for help. And God knew that. And God came to Solomon in a dream that night, essentially asking, “What would you like to have?” Like a genie offering to grant any wish, God appeared to Solomon to test his heart.
Now a young ruler could reasonably ask for many things like riches and honor or a long life and certainly the death of his enemies. But not Solomon. Solomon asked for an understanding mind. He asked for wisdom and knowledge so that he could govern Israel faithfully. Solomon felt the need to go to the Source of all wisdom, God Almighty, Himself. Solomon wanted to walk with the Wise, with a capital “W”. In fact, that is the theme of Proverbs. So, Solomon, the preacher, tell us. How can we walk with the Wise?
First of all, Proverbs tells us that it is important to seek God’s wisdom. Go to the source. Go to the right source. That was the theme of Solomon’s life at this point.
We’ll be looking at several Proverbs. I invite you to open your Bibles, if you don’t have them open already, to that book.
I’d like to quote from Proverbs 9, verse 10. Chapter 9, verse 10. You know that text. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” I like the Contemporary English Version. It says, “Respect and obey the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom. To have understanding, you must know the Holy God.” I can’t argue with that, can you? Very wise. And then look over in chapter 3. One of my favorites. Proverbs 3, and verses 5 and 6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
So, Number 1, we must go to God and His word. We must go to the right source.
And secondly, Proverbs tells us that we must be teachable and open to learning. Without that, wisdom and instruction does us no good. None whatsoever. According to Proverbs, chapter 12, if you’ll look there. Proverbs chapter 12, and verse 15. It says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who”, what’s that word? Hearkens, or heeds, or listens, “to counsel is wise”.
It’s significant, I believe, that when Solomon began his request it was with a recognition of the greatness of God’s chosen nation, Israel, and at the same time his own inexperience, as a king. He felt like he was a child, as it were, dependent upon God’s help. In other words, He was humble. He was teachable. So that begs us to ask this question. Are we open to what God wants to teach us?
Have you ladies ever wondered about your husbands, when they’re driving and they know where they’re going, even when they have never even been there before? They absolutely know. And it looks to you like your husband is just driving around, wandering, losing time. “Of course, I know how to get there,” as he drives in circles. “What, stop and ask for directions!?” as if the wisest thing in the world was a really stupid idea. And then 15 minutes pass and then 20, 45 minutes later, maybe an hour, and he finally begins to wonder if it wouldn’t have been wiser and quicker to ask for help.
Which is more effective, efficient and fast for many things in life? To go it alone and try to figure it out yourself? Or to ask for counsel? To ask someone who knows. Did you know that failure rates in business and in marriage are cut by two-thirds when counselors are brought into the picture?
According to Proverbs 11, verse 14. Proverbs 11, verse 14, it says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Wouldn’t that advice apply to all areas of our lives?
Wouldn’t that apply to our spiritual lives?
Wouldn’t that apply to our marriages and our families?
Or our careers?
Our finances?
Yes, even our health.
So, Number 2, we must be open and teachable in order for wisdom and instruction to benefit us.
The third thing that Proverbs tells us is that we must choose our closest friends very carefully.
It’s really important to have godly influences in your life. Wise counselors, people who will point you in the right direction. We’ll want to actively pursue and listen to sources of godly wisdom, not foolishness. We’ll seek out wise people to learn from them. We’ll spend time with God’s word and with people who have a good influence on us.
Hallerin Hilton Hill did that. He tells about arriving on the campus of Georgia-Cumberland Academy in Calhoun, Georgia. Up until that time, he had been a decent student with an average GPA, but he didn’t take his studies seriously. He just wanted to have fun. One evening around 9 o’clock, he describes wandering the halls looking for someone to play cards with. He stuck his head into his friend Eric’s room, chatting excitedly about a game. And he looked around the room. And everything was spotless and the room was quiet.
His friend turned to Hallerin and said, “Hey man, we’re trying to study. We’ve got no time to play.” Stunned, Hallerin thought about what his purpose should be. He felt challenged to change his loose and undisciplined notions about education and get to work.
He’s thankful today for the influence of those young men. Their friendship and their hunger for excellence reshaped his life. And today, Hallerin is a popular talk show host on a Knoxville radio station, a motivational speaker and trainer, and the author of the book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
So, Number 3, according to Proverbs, we must choose friends who will give us godly counsel.
And Number 4, Solomon tells us, it is important to avoid bad influences. If it’s true that with the multitude of godly counselors there is safety, it’s also true that with ungodly counsel or influence, one will fall.
And Solomon’s own story illustrates this principle. When he followed God’s counsel and directions, he succeeded. But after a lifetime of listening to flattery and enjoying riches and honor and privilege that no one else ever had or perhaps ever will, and then ignoring God’s counsel and allowing bad influences into his life, Solomon failed, morally and spiritually.
First Kings tells us very dramatically of the kinds of influences that led his life away. You notice in chapter 3 and in chapter 11 some very decisive, very real dynamics going on in Solomon’s life. In fact, in the very chapter, First Kings 3, where he asks God, famously, for wisdom and for knowledge to govern Israel faithfully; in that same chapter and before he asked God for that wisdom, in First Kings 3, verse 1, it tells us that Solomon made a pact with Egypt. With Pharoah. He made an alliance with a pagan nation, and it was a marriage alliance, in which he would take Pharoah’s daughter to be his wife. And it began a very dangerous practice for Solomon.
And then when you look at chapter 11 of First Kings, it tells us that King Solomon loved many foreign women, even from those nations that God specifically told Israel to not inter-marry with. First Kings 11, verses 2 and 3, it tells us that Solomon clung to these in love. He had 7 hundred wives, princesses, and 3 hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
Well, what can you expect, after all, with 1 thousand significant others!? Surely in this matter, Solomon was not wise! First Kings 11, verse 4, “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”
So back to the book of Proverbs. What does Solomon say about staying away from bad influences?
Look at chapter 13, verse 20. Proverbs 13, and verse 20. “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” And then look at chapter 25, verse 5. Very interesting proverb, considering what was to later happen to Solomon. Chapter 25, verse 5. “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.”
There really is a need to evaluate the influences in our lives. Who are our friends? Are they good for us? Are they honest people? Are they godly? Are they growing and learning spiritually? Walk with the wise, don’t be companions with fools, Proverbs tells us. You can read many things about not spending time with gossips, not making friendships with angry people, watching out for those who flatter you. It’s all right there, in the book of Proverbs. It’s too bad that Solomon did not follow his own counsel.
Solomon eventually returned to seeking God’s counsel and depending upon Him. But over the course of Solomon’s early rule, God warned him against the evils of not following God’s direction, and specifically against idolatry. God repeatedly warned Solomon. Three times he did. You look at First Kings chapter 3, chapter 6 and chapter 9. Let’s look at the last one, chapter 9, verse 6. It says, “But if you turn aside from following me,” God speaking, “you or your children,” speaking directly to Solomon, “and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them.”
I believe God was actually trying to prepare Solomon for the very unique temptations that he would face, before he faced them. And even when Solomon went the wrong way, God, it’s so wonderful, God did not abandon Him. He brought Solomon messages of correction. And the good news is that Solomon did repent. That’s what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about.
The noted author, John Killinger, tells a powerful story about a man who was all alone in a hotel room far from home. The man was in a state of deep depression. He was so depressed that he couldn’t even bring himself to go downstairs to the restaurant to eat.
He was a powerful man, the chairman of a large shipping company but at that moment, he was absolutely overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of life; wallowing in self-pity. All of his life, he had been fastidious, worrying about everything, anxious and fretful, always fussing and stewing over every detail. And now, at mid-life, his anxiety had gotten the best of him, even to the extent that it was difficult for him to sleep and to eat.
He worried and brooded and agonized over everything. His business, his investments, his decisions, his family, his health. Even his dogs. Then, on this day, in that hotel, he hit bottom. Filled with anxiety, completely immobilized, paralyzed by his emotional despair, unable to leave his room, lying on his bed, he moaned out loud: “Life isn’t worth living this way. I’d rather be dead!” And then he wondered what God would think if God heard him talking this way. And so, speaking aloud again, he said, “God, it’s a joke, isn’t it? Life is nothing but a joke.”
And suddenly, it occurred to the man that this was the first time he’d talked to God since he was a little boy. He was silent for a moment and then he began to pray. He described it like this: “I just talked out loud about what a mess my life was in and how tired I was and how much I wanted things to be different in my life. And you know what happened next? A voice. I heard a voice say, ‘It doesn’t have to be that way!’”
He went home and talked to his wife about what happened. He talked to his brother who is a minister and asked him: “Do you think it was God speaking to me?” The brother said: “Of course, because that’s the message of God to you and to everyone of us. That’s why Jesus came into the world, to save us, to deliver us, to free us, to change us and to show us that ‘It doesn’t have to be that way.’ ”
Well, that man became a Christian, a seeker of God’s wisdom. His whole life turned around.
I believe that’s what God was trying to say to Solomon in his darkest moments. When his life was a mess. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Solomon.”
And maybe you feel that your life is a mess, at times. Or you feel that you just don’t measure up. You’ve made bad decisions. By God’s grace, it doesn’t have to be that way. By God’s grace, it doesn’t have to stay that way. By His grace we can be seekers of God’s wisdom. So let’s go to the source of all wisdom, God Almighty, Himself.
And let’s be humble and teachable. And let’s choose godly influences for our lives. And let’s avoid the bad ones.
With God’s grace, let’s walk with the wise!
Let’s sing our closing hymn, Praise To The Lord. Hymn number 1.
Hymn of Praise: #20, O Praise Ye The Lord Scripture: Proverbs 3:13-15 Hymn of Response: #1, Praise to The Lord
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 7/27/07